CHA4028 RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha – Chapter 03 Pregenerated Adventurers Q&A

Official Answers from Chaosium

This section covers the second part of Chapter 3, pages 84-97:

Note that the Starter Set Pregenerated Adventurers corrections are here.

See also

Vasana Farnan’s Daughter (page 84)

Typos

I was sorely wounded at the Second Battle of Moonbroth, granting me this terrible scar across on the left half of my face.

Reorder characteristics to standard STR/CON/SIZ/DEX/INT/POW/CHA format

Armor: bronze greaves and vambraces (6 pts.)

Vasana Hit Locations’ table

LocationD20Armor/HP
Right Leg1-46/4
Left Leg5-86/4
Abdomen9-113/4
Chest125/5
Right Arm13-155/3
Left Arm16-186/3
Head19-206/3

Vasana Attacks

Weapon%DamageSRPts
Lance701D10+1+3D6510
Battle Axe551D8+2+1D478
Medium Shield551D4+1D4812
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Yanioth Vareena’s Daughter (page 86)

Change
Typos

Reorder characteristics to standard STR/CON/SIZ/DEX/INT/POW/CHA format

Yanioth Attacks

Weapon%DamageSRPts
Dagger351D4+2+1D476
Battle Axe551D8+2+1D468

Yanioth’s Elemental (page 87)

(page 87)

Elemental Characteristics (page 87)

Change
Correction

Damage Bonus

Harmast Baranthos’ Son (page 88)

Update

Javelin line is replaced with 2 Javelin weapons of “Javelin, One-handed 45 1D8+1D4 5 7” and “Javelin, Thrown 45 1D10 1 -“.

Second printing corrections.

PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS SECOND PRINTING CORRECTION HAS BEEN SUPERSEDED (see below).

Change
Corrections

Reorder characteristics to standard STR/CON/SIZ/DEX/INT/POW/CHA format

Armor: Segmented bronze plate (6 pts.)

Harmast Attacks (page 89)

Update supersedes Second printing corrections above:

Weapon%DamageSRPts
Broadsword1001D4+2+1D4512
Battle Axe401D8+2+1D468
One-handed Javelin451D6+1D458
Thrown Javelin451D10+1D21–

Vishi Dunn (page 90)

Change
Typos

Reorder characteristics to standard STR/CON/SIZ/DEX/INT/POW/CHA format

Hit Points: 14

Vishi Dunn Attacks

Weapon%DamageSRPts
Dagger451D4+2+1D486

Cousin Monkey, Baboon (page 91)

Change
Typo
Weapon%DamageSRPts
Sling301D8+1D22–

Upgrading Cousin monkey to match the RQ Bestiary

Cousin monkey was designed originally for the RuneQuest QuickStart, as a boon companion (See RQG page 40). Baboons are quite powerful, so in that context some of his attributes don’t reflect the standard baboon in the Bestiary. He’s lower in some abilities, and is better in other aspects, for example he has a second rune, and a set of spells thought helpful to the scenario.

Generally for NPCs, the Skills Category Modifiers are not calculated. You will have noticed that we don’t include a space for them on our NPC sheets in the GM screen pack. As usual GMs are welcome to add them in their games.

If you wish to upgrade Cousin monkey the per Bestiary pages 28 & 29:

Optional changes
Optional changes
  • Dodge 40% 
  • Speak (Beastspeech) 50%
  • Speak (Praxian) 15%
  • Bite 50%

Vostor Son of Pyjeem (page 92)

Change
Corrections

Reorder characteristics to standard STR/CON/SIZ/DEX/INT/POW/CHA format

Perception +5%

Vostor Attacks

Weapon%DamageSRPts
Dagger451D4+2+1D486

Vostor’s Elemental (page 97)

Elemental Characteristics (page 97)

Change
Correction

Damage Bonus

Summoning Vostor’s Elemental

Vostor doesn’t have the Fire rune, so how can he cast his Summon Fire Elemental (small) spell?

Seven Mothers initiates can Summon / Dismiss Elementals (max 1pt) using the Moon rune, but cannot Summon / Dismiss any form of Air Elemental. 

Sorala Daughter of Toria (page 94)

Change
Corrections

Reorder characteristics to standard STR/CON/SIZ/DEX/INT/POW/CHA format

Sorala Attacks

Weapon%DamageSRPts
Battle Axe351D8+2+1D468
Sling451D8+1D21–
Thrown Axe651D6+1D216

Quickstart vs. RQG Sorala

While currently preparing to run the Quickstart with the full fledged RuneQuest – Roleplaying in Glorantha rule set I’ve compared the descriptions of the pre-generated characters in the Quickstart and in the core rules. Most changes are minimal, but for Sorala there is an important change in available magic. While she has several Spirit Spells available in the Quickstart, these disappeared completely in her description in the core rules (as well as in the Gamemaster Screen Pack), and instead she got some Sorcery Techniques and several Sorcery Spells.

While I understand the addition of the Sorcery Techniques and Spells (“…  and even the paths of sorcery are among my specialities. …”), and I understand the missing Spirit Spells because of the following entry in the Adventurer Creation process Step 6, p.73:

But I’m not so sure about the consequences. Does that mean, that an adventurer, which starts with learning Cult Sorcery, is not at all allowed to learn Cult Spirit Magic. Or does he have to make this decision in the beginning only, but is still able to learn Cult Spirit Magic later?

Sorala’s magic choices in the Quickstart were made entirely for expediency. It didn’t seem a good use of space in the rules section of the Quickstart adventure to include sorcery—even in abbreviated form—as her sorcery spell choices would have been fairly ineffectual during the adventure. 

Use the rules from the core book as written. The rules for creating adventurers address their prior experience and training and are not life-long restrictions. 

Lhankor Mhy cult members, for example, can learn cult spirit magic later. His description on page 298 has the spirit magic offered by the cult. 

Nathem Son of Nhean (page 96)

Change
Corrections

Reorder characteristics to standard STR/CON/SIZ/DEX/INT/POW/CHA format

Nathem Attacks

Weapon%DamageSRPts
Dagger351D4+2+1D476
Long Spear251D10+1+1D4310

Rurik the Shadowcat

STR 8 CON 15 SIZ 6 DEX 26 POW 14

Rurik the Shadowcat (page 97)
How does the Shadowcat assist Nathem?

They don’t have any sensory skills listed. I would say that a Shadowcat should at least have Smell as a skill. And they don’t seem to have Tracking as a skill. The companion at least has been trained as a hunting animal. How does he aid Nathem and augment the hunter’s skills?

There are a few ways a GM can use Nathem’s shadow cat. In my games, I give Nathem an automatic augment on his tracking skills depending on environmental conditions, +30% normally, +20% (dark, poor weather), nothing in heavy rain. We assumed that the cat had 100% scent, tracking & listen where appropriate, and only if needed.

Another approach I’ve seen is to use characteristic multipliers – CONx5 for physical attributes like scent, tracking & listen (so these are at 65%).

Overall, adding more skills just slows the game down. 

Related Pages

Page Last updated: 2025-03-23 14:15:50